Age 8-11

My kids love reading fables, and I love reading fables to them. They have wonderful morals, lead to great discussion, and can be enjoyed by children of all ages. There are some that contradict Islamic principles so we avoid these, but overall fables are a great way to discuss morals and values.

Asalamu alaykum Sisters,i hope you are all well. I wanted to share a couple of things I did with my kids to explain Tawhid a little further. Weve already covered the pillars in Islam in quite some detail, so I decided we now need to study Iman in more depth. Using mind mapping, discussions, and note-booking worksheets we managed to have a really engaging lesson which the kids thoroughly enjoyed, Allahuma barik.

The wonderful thing about mind-mapping is the discussion that flows. We spoke about each category, how we implement it and also touched upon negation and affirmation. Alhamdulillah, because it was so engaging, we will be covering each pillar of Iman in a similar way insha’Allah.You can download the full lesson plan HERE and get a copy of the note-booking pages by clicking HERE.Have a wonderful day!

I hope everyone is doing well and getting excited for Ramadan which is less than a week away!

Today, I’d like to share another Ramadan activity that can be done by the whole family. Like our Gratitude board, this ones not just for the kids. Kids, parents, grandparents and guests can all join in. But there’s a big difference….. this is a CHALLENGE!

Let me introduce our ‘CRACK THE RAMADAN CODE’ challenge.

The concept is simple. Every day, for the next 30 days (or 29) you will be handed an envelope. In this envelope, there will be a question related to Ramadan. There are some simple questions, and some fairly challenging. I kept them varied so everyone has a chance to help crack the code!Read More

When I think about my own journey with hijab, I vividly remember being told when I needed to wear hijab, but not so much why I should wear it. I wanted to cement a memory for my girls, a deep heart to heart discussion that they would remember inshaAllah. So, since my daughters love having a girls night in, I thought I would make it extra special and have an evening themed ‘My Hijab and Me’.

I prepared some questions that I wanted to cover the night before.

Then while the girls were outside, I set up the table with cupcakes, icing, henna and candles to make it extra cosy.

And that was it…

Allahuma barik, we had the most wonderful evening discussing hijab while decorating cupcakes and putting on some henna. The girls tried on jilbab, and niqab, we went through the mushaf reading out ayaat where Allah mentions hijaab, and the girls had an opportunity to ask me anything they wanted relating to hijab.

Im sure we will revisit hijab again in a more structured way, but I’m hoping this evening was something my girls would remember and is the beginning of a lifelong love and understanding of our beautiful hijab.

You can download the questions we used here.
I would love to know how you introduced and explained hijab to your girls, share your experiences in the comments below!

The beautiful month of mercy is around the corner, and we need to enter the month feeling prepared. So, over the next couple of weeks, I will be covering the fiqh of Ramadan with my older kids, using ‘Fasting in Ramadan as observed by the Prophet (peace be upon him)’ as our main resource. We won’t be covering the whole book, but rather taking the basics and covering them in more detail.

For the younger kiddos, I made a lapbook covering some very basic aspects of fiqh. We haven’t started the books yet, hence everything is blank, but all the information can be found in the same book.

Ramadan is just days away from us and I wanted my kiddos to be excited! Our beautiful guest only comes once a year, so it’s important we prepare for its arrival. The Salaf us Salih used to prepare way in advance and we are guilty of not having the same yearning. So I wanted to get us going, but not the usual couple of weeks before Ramadan which tends to be more the physical preparation. I want our minds, hearts and physical limbs to start preparing for this beautiful month right now.This activity is aimed at younger children, but even my older kids like to join in. The main objective of feeling excited, and waiting in anticipation for Ramadan is felt by everybody though because our ‘house’ provides a great discussion point that everyone can get involved in.

So, let me introduce our Ramadan guest house where Ramadan will be staying. He has been gone a whole year, so now the grass has overgrown, the dust has settled all over the windows, and there is no furniture inside -what can we do?? Read More

Asalamualaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu ladiesFor the last weeks, we have been covering rivers, volcanoes, mountains, glaciers, earthquakes and caves as part of our science studies. So now was the time to let the kids go ahead and take what they were most interested in and get creative.

The only brief I gave my kids was that they must make a model of some sort and research basic information such as how it is formed, the oldest/tallest/largest, some famous examples and anything else they found interesting. Lastly, they had to present their findings to an audience (aka me and daddy!).Read More

I hope you are all in the best of health and Emaan. I remember reading an interview with some Muslim homeschool families, who had been homeschooling for a while and were sharing some valuable insight from their journey. One of the father’s said something along the lines of if you only teach your children the obligatory actions you are putting them in a danger zone. That’s not to say that the obligatory actions are not enough, but more so he was trying to emphasise the virtue of the Sunnah..i.e. if your child leaves certain sunnah actions once in a while and still does the obligatory, he will be fine-but leaving the obligatory actions will be problematic.

What he said resonated with me, and reminded me of the hadith about the virtues and benefits of the extra prayers.The first actions for which a servant of Allah will be held accountable on the Day of Resurrection will be his prayers. If they are in order, then he will have prospered and succeeded; but if they are lacking, then he will have failed and lost. If there is something defective in his obligatory prayers then the Lord the Exalted will say: See if My servant has any extra prayers which can complete what is defective in his obligatory prayers. Then the rest of his actions will be judged in the same way. Source: Sunan At-Tirmidhi 413, Grade: HasanRead More

Asalamualaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu ladies, I hope you are all in the best of health and peaks of emaan, ameen.

In the last few weeks of our earth science studies we have covered volcanoes, earthquakes, and mountains, and glaciers today; we still have caves and rivers to go. All of this will be leading up to the kids carrying out their first independent project this year, which I will be sharing soon inshaAllah.Read More

Asalamualaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu ladiesWe are currently studying the Ancient Egyptians in History and like many, my kids found the concept of hieroglyphics so interesting! So, I decided to do a little project…but not the usual making a scroll and painting.

Instead, we decided to make our stone tablets from gingerbread and ‘carve’ our hieroglyphics like the Ancient Egyptians did!

What you will need:Gingerbread biscuit doughClingfilm to wrap and chillButter knives/toothpicks/forksRolling pinCookie cutters – optional, I had these on hand so my 3 year old could join in.Read More